With tuition exemption for public students nationwide from kindergarten to high school from the 2025-2026 school year, it is estimated that the budget must allocate 30,000 billion VND each year.
According to calculations by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), if we deduct the local budgets of provinces and cities that have implemented tuition exemption, the central budget must implement less than this amount.
In fact, the budget level that needs to be guaranteed will depend on the specific tuition fee level of each province or centrally-run city under the authority of the Provincial People's Council, decided on the basis of the Government's regulations on the floor and ceiling tuition fees.
Instead of being a burden on the budget, free tuition will become a strategic investment.
Current public school tuition fees range from 8,000 to 340,000 VND/month. Ho Chi Minh City charges the highest fee of 200,000 VND/month for preschool children. A series of provinces and cities have the highest tuition fees of less than 100,000 VND/month.
With the tuition exemption policy applied from the 2025-2026 school year, public school students do not have to pay the above amount. However, parents still have to pay for other educational services such as boarding, after-school childcare, artistic and sports training, etc. according to the fee schedule prescribed by each locality.
Sharing about the 30,000 billion VND budget that must be allocated for tuition exemption, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that this is not a small number, and has certainly been carefully calculated by the Politburo based on the Government's report on the ability to mobilize resources from streamlining the payroll, optimizing administrative spending and other financial solutions. Mr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh said that with a high determination to utilize internal resources to invest in the future, this decision, instead of being a burden on the budget, will become a strategic investment, bringing results in the development and prosperity of the country in the future.
The Ministry of Education and Training leaders admitted that exempting tuition fees for high school students (grades 10 to 12) could affect the orientation of students after secondary school in choosing to continue to high school or vocational training. This leads to increasing pressure on public schools, especially in urban areas, especially in the entrance exam for grade 10. This policy could lead to the orientation of students after secondary school being affected.
Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh acknowledged that this is a reality that requires managers to have solutions to help reduce the burden on public schools, supplement schools at all levels, including converting the function of facilities through the process of streamlining and merging. At the same time, it is necessary to continue researching and proposing better incentive policies to encourage and attract investment in the non-public education sector, helping to reduce the burden on the public sector, creating diversity for people to choose a suitable educational environment for their children.
Sharing the same view on the concern about increasing competitive pressure on public schools, the principal of a high school in Hanoi said that this has been a problem for localities for many years, especially big cities. According to this principal, along with the tuition-free policy, it is necessary to consider and expand the public school system, improve the quality of private schools so that people have more choices that suit their financial ability as well as their family's wishes.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/mien-hoc-phi-truong-cong-nang-chat-luong-truong-tu-196250306211208681.htm
Comment (0)